The Calm Before the Storm
by neko-chan0017
Summary: What if Charlie had spent more time with Allie and Lisa before Allie was taken by the military?
1. After Darkness, Comes the Light

Title: The Calm Before the Storm

Author: Kat

Disclaimer: Taken and its characters don't belong to me. It belongs to Spielberg and 

                 company.

Summary: What if Charlie had more time with Allie and Lisa before Allie was taken 

                by the military? 

A/N: So probably everyone has gotten over their obsession already but I live in the

       Philippines and they only started showing Taken last July and it only ended a 

       couple of weeks ago so my obsession is still going strong. I hope you take the 

       time to read this anyway because this is my first Taken fanfic and the only 

       fanfic I've ever posted so I'm kind of nervous and I'd be forever grateful if you 

       could review. 

       This takes place after Charlie comes to Seattle and before Allie is taken by the

       military. Everything that happened on the show, how Charlie and Lisa met, how 

       they found out that Charlie is Allie's dad, etc., happened. I'm just gonna put a 

       1 month time gap between Lisa and Charlie's regression therapy and the 

       hostage situation.

       Sorry for the long-winded A/N. ; )

Chapter 1: After Darkness, Comes the Light

The room was dark, only the moonlight peeking through the curtains gave light to the small room and illuminated the tiny, sleeping figure lying on the bed.

Lisa quietly crept into the room and sat on the chair across from the bed. She watched the rise and fall of her daughter's chest as she slept soundly. Lisa had always found comfort in doing this. Whenever she couldn't sleep, whenever something was bothering her she would watch her daughter sleep. Her baby, her Allie.

Lisa had always considered Allie as a miracle; a gift that her father's other family had given her at the one point in her life when she needed it the most. But she had always wondered who was Allie's father. Who was that guy who was always there during her abductions but she only half-remembered? Lisa had tried many times before to remember him, his face, anything about him that would help her gain some insight as to who he was. She had tried and failed and finally she gave up. She had Allie and nothing else mattered.

Now he was here, here in Seattle. After 9 years, the father of her child finally had a name and a face. Lisa had felt a strong connection to Charlie the moment she laid eyes on him. It wasn't just a feeling, it was more than just déjà vu. She really _knew_ that she had met him before and he knew it too.

How was she going to tell Allie? How was she going to explain all of this when she didn't even understand any of it herself?

Lisa sat there watching her daughter sleep peacefully. Then she did something that she always does when she can't sleep, she crawled into bed with Allie, held her in her arms and listened to her light breathing.

Lisa's life had always been crazy. Her father died when she was a kid, she had to go into hiding when she was a teenager, she was a multiple abductee, and she got pregnant with no memory at all of how it happened. But out of all of this madness came something beautiful, Allie. And Lisa had a feeling deep inside of her that another beautiful thing was about to be born out of this complete mess that was her life.

*****

Charlie lay awake staring at the ceiling of his motel room. He stared at it intently, as if he looked hard enough he would be able to find all the answers to life's mysteries. He stared and stared but really there was only one thing running through his mind.

'I'm a father.'

The thought was bewildering to him. He came to Seattle looking for answers. Answers to why the aliens were abducting people, what did they want? He never thought that what he'd find was a daughter.

The minute he saw Lisa, he felt a connection. And he knew she felt it too. He had seen her before, he was sure of it. As it turns out, she's actually the mother of his child.

'I'm a father.'

Lisa said she didn't know if she wanted him around. But Charlie had no intention of leaving. He had already missed 9 years of his daughter's life, he'd be damned if he was going to let the opportunity to get to know her pass him by. There's a reason he ended up in Seattle. He believed it was more than just mere coincidence that brought him to Dr. Penzler's support group.

Even though he had only spent two days with her, Charlie knew enough about Lisa to know that she was strong and fiercely independent. She wasn't going to just welcome him into her and Allie's life with open arms. Her trust, along with a place in their family, had to be earned. And Charlie was definitely up to the challenge.

The aliens had made his family's life a living hell, starting with his grandfather. He had spent his life in darkness. Always running, not understanding the things that were happening to him. And now, after meeting Lisa and Allie, he was finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.


	2. Daddy's Home

Chapter 2: Daddy's Home

Nina watched bemusedly as Lisa paced back and forth in front of her. Nina had known Lisa for years and she always knew to expect the unexpected when it came to her friend. Ever since Lisa had told her that she was part alien, then after Lisa became pregnant after one of her abductions, Nina didn't think anything could surprise her anymore. But what Lisa just told her definitely surprised her.

"So Charlie, the cute guy in your apartment the other night, is Allie's father?" Nina asked incredulously.

"Yes!" Lisa rubbed her forehead as she continued to pace. "That's what I said."

Lisa didn't know what to do, she was scared and confused, so she did the only thing she knew how in these situations where nothing seemed to make sense. She went to her best friend. After dropping Allie off at school, she went straight to Nina's apartment in hopes that Nina could somehow help her make sense of all of this.

"When are you going to tell Allie?" Nina asked.

"I don't know," Lisa replied. "I don't know if I'm going to tell her at all."

"Okay, Lis, you're making me dizzy," Nina patted the spot next to her on the couch. "Sit down."

Lisa sat and Nina turned to face her.

"You have to tell her," Nina said seriously.

"Why? Why do I have to tell her? Allie and I are doing just fine on our own."

"Allie needs a father."

"I don't even know him," Lisa protested. "I'm not about to introduce a complete stranger to Allie as her father."

"You don't invite complete strangers home for dinner," Nina pointed out. "Which you did the other night after knowing Charlie for only a couple of hours."

Lisa looked away. She was right, she never did that. But after going out for coffee with Charlie, the invitation just seemed to shoot out of her mouth. She didn't have to think twice about it.

"For all of Allie's 9 years, It's only been the two of us. And now Charlie just appears out of nowhere," Lisa shook her head. "Allie's not ready for the change, _I'm not ready for the change."_

"I don't think Charlie expected any of this either," Nina said. "You know Allie will understand. She'll be able to understand this better than any of us. What are you _really_ afraid of Lis?"

Lisa thought about this, after a long moment she finally spoke. "Say I do tell Allie that Charlie is her father. He moves around a lot. If Allie gets attached to him, and he suddenly decides one day to up and leave, I will be left behind with a heartbroken kid."

"And if that should happen Allie won't be the only one heartbroken," Nina said knowingly.

"Are you saying I have feelings for him?" Lisa asked incredulously.

Nina just looked at her. 

"I don't even know him!" Lisa argued.

"No, but you _feel_ something for him, and who's to say you don't him? He is the father of your child after all. And you said right from the beginning that it wasn't artificial insemination and it wasn't forced copulation."

One of the things that Lisa loved and hated the most about her best friend was her ability to see right through her. Lisa was good at reading the emotions of other people, a trait that she inherited from her father. But when it came to herself sometimes Lisa was a complete mess and Nina always seemed to be able to see through the confusion and get to the core of what was really bothering her. This time was no different.

Lisa was quiet for a long time. Nina put her arm over Lisa's shoulders and said, "At least he's cute."

Lisa couldn't suppress the smile that spread across her face at that comment. "Nina you're incorrigible!"

They laughed, until Nina sobered up. She looked at Lisa seriously. "Think about the relationship you had with your dad, think about how much you loved him. Do you really want to deprive Allie of a chance to have that kind of relationship with her father?"

*****

"I don't have soccer practice tomorrow," Allie called out to her mom as she dropped her school stuff in her room. "So you have to pick me up from school early."

Lisa sat down at the kitchen table and put her head in her hands.

Allie came out and sat in the chair beside her mom. "Is Charlie going to come over again?"

"About Charlie…" Lisa trailed off uncertainly. "Honey, we need to talk."

Allie looked at her mom expectantly.

"You've asked me about your dad before. Who is he, where is he, why isn't he with us," Lisa paused and took her hand in hers. "The truth is I didn't know him."

Lisa tried to gauge Allie's reaction, but as usual, her face was calm and understanding. She silently urged her mother to go on, knowing how hard this was for her.

"I've told you that we're part alien and the group I go to…..I go there to talk about my experiences."

Allie nodded.

Lisa didn't know how to put this any other way so she said it bluntly. "You were conceived onboard an alien spacecraft. I had no memory of what happened, I only had a vague memory of this guy. A guy I didn't know. I couldn't remember his face, or anything about him. Until a couple of days ago, when I met Charlie."

"The minute I laid eyes on him I felt a connection to him. Charlie's your dad, Allie."

Allie smiled and squeezed Lisa's hand. "I had a good feeling about him the moment I saw him."

Lisa smiled back. "Me too."

"Is he going to stay with us now?"

"I don't know. But honey, even if Charlie doesn't stay we still have each other, we'll always have each other," Lisa told her reassuringly.

Allie nodded and hugged her mom. 

"I love you honey."

"I love you too mom."

Lisa smiled as she hugged her daughter. She knew Allie would understand, she always does. 


	3. Rocky Road

Chapter 3: Rocky Road

Lisa fidgeted in her seat and uncomfortably looked around the room. She focused her gaze anywhere and everywhere but at Charlie. She tried to listen as Dale, once again, recounted memories of his son but found herself unable to concentrate on what he or anyone else in the group was saying. She had been avoiding Charlie throughout the meeting but she knew that sooner or later she would have to talk to him.

The later became sooner when Dr. Penzler adjourned the group.

Lisa walked over to Charlie, who was gathering his stuff and his back turned to her. "Charlie."

Charlie turned around in surprise. "Lisa. I thought you were going to bolt out the door the minute the meeting was over."

"It was tempting, but we really need to talk."

"Okay," Charlie looked around the now empty room. "Do you want to go somewhere else?"

"Here's fine," Lisa said. "I told Allie."

"When?" Charlie asked in surprise.

"Last night. I know I should've told you first, but she took it really well. She's an amazing kid."

"I'm sure she is."

"Allie doesn't have soccer practice today so she gets out of school in 30 minutes," Lisa said. "I thought maybe you'd like to pick her up. Her favorite ice cream parlor is, like, 5 blocks away from the school. I'm sure she'd be happy to take you there."

Charlie looked at Lisa in shock, just the other day she was saying that she wasn't sure if she wanted Allie to know that Charlie was her father at all. Actually Lisa had all but told him to get lost, and now….

Finally Charlie found his voice. "That sounds great."

"Okay, I guess I'll see you later then," Lisa turned to leave.

"Lisa!" Charlie called out just as she was about to walk out the door, she stopped and looked at him. "Thank you."

Lisa smiled, nodded, and left.

**********

Charlie stepped out of his car and immediately spotted Allie in the crowd of kids. It's funny how the ones who are special to you always seem to stand out in the crowd. Allie saw him too and started walking towards him.

"Hi," Allie smiled up at him.

"Hey," Charlie said. "You don't look very surprised to see me."

"I thought you'd come."

"Your mom told you?"

"No, I just knew."

"Your mom said there's an ice cream parlor nearby, do you want to go?"

"Okay," Allie glanced at his car. "It's not very far, we can walk there."

"Okay, let's just leave your stuff here then," Charlie took Allie's backpack and put it inside the car.

Allie took his hand as they walked towards the ice cream parlor and Charlie smiled down at her. He couldn't believe this amazing little girl was actually his daughter.

**********

Allie eyed her father carefully over her bowl of ice cream. All her life she had always wondered who her father was, why he wasn't around, why her mom never talked about him. Over time she simply learned to accept that it was just her and her mom. It wasn't hard for her to do, her mom was great. Sometimes she would get a little jealous when she saw her friends' dads standing on the sidelines of the soccer field, cheering their daughters on during the game. Sometimes she'd feel a little stab of pain in her heart when after the game, whether they had won or loss, the fathers would pick their daughters up and spin them around. But all in all, Allie considered herself lucky. She had her mom and she had Aunt Nina.

Now Charlie was here and she finally understood why she never had a dad. He never knew about her or her, or her mom. She knew that this wasn't a normal explanation and most kids would have hard time accepting this. But Allie also knew that she was anything but a normal girl. She couldn't hold the fact that he didn't know against Charlie and she didn't intend to. She just wanted them to be a family. Allie had told her mom that she had a good feeling about Charlie the moment she met him. But it was more than just a feeling, it was a connection. It's like there's this little hole inside of you, a piece that's missing. But you've lived with the little hole your entire life that you don't even know it's there until it's been filled. That's what she felt when she met Charlie, and she knew her mom felt it too. They were going to be a family, the three of them. She had a feeling that she and her mom were going to need Charlie, especially her mom.

For the past 20 minutes, Allie and Charlie had been chatting over their bowls of ice cream. They had discovered something else they had in common when they first ordered, they both loved rocky road.

"I don't blame you, you know," Allie said suddenly, giving voice to Charlie's feelings of guilt. "It's not your fault, that you weren't around."

Charlie looked up in surprise, sitting here talking to Allie, he'd realized just how incredible she truly is. She's smart, insightful, and observant. When you talked to her, it didn't feel like you were talking to a nine year old. And he felt guilty that he hadn't been around to see her grow up. "I just wish I could've been around."

"You're here now," Allie offered.

"Yeah, I am," Charlie smiled.

"It doesn't make any sense, does it? All of this?" Allie asked.

Charlie shook his head.

"But you still stick around."

"I've had a pretty weird life and I learned early on that there are these things in life that don't make any sense, and if you're anywhere near smart you'd know that," Charlie paused and looked at Allie. "But your job is not to give up, to keep on trying to make sense out of them anyway. Trying to understand things that could never be understood."

"So you're trying to understand?"

"You're my daughter Allie, I don't know why things had to happen this way," Charlie said. "But they did, and I really want to be a part of your life now."

"I'd like that," Allie smiled.

**********

"Mom, I'm home!" Allie called out as she walked through the door. Charlie went in after her, just as Lisa came out of her room.

"Hey, did you guys have fun?" Lisa asked Allie.

"Yeah, Charlie likes rocky road ice cream too," Allie told her mom excitedly.

"He does?" Lisa looked up at Charlie. "Mystery solved then."

Allie went into her room, leaving Lisa and Charlie alone.

Lisa walked over to Charlie. "Nina and I have always been chocolate chip cookie dough people, but Allie has always loved rocky road. When she was six she went through a phase where she wouldn't touch any other ice cream but rocky road. She's more open minded now but she still loves her rocky road."

Lisa looked at Charlie thoughtfully. "Are you, by any chance, a morning person?"

"Yeah," Charlie replied. "Being on the road most of my life, I got used to having to wake up early."

"Favorite sandwich?"

Charlie was confused by Lisa's line of questioning but humored her anyway. "Peanut butter and jelly."

"You really are Allie's dad," Lisa laughed.

"Where are you staying?" Lisa sat down on the couch and Charlie followed suit.

"At a motel nearby," Charlie said. "I'm going to start looking for an apartment in the morning."

"So you're really going to stay?"

"Yeah."

"What about your research?"

Charlie sighed. "When I first started the research about the abductions, it was like an obsession. It felt so important yet I only half-knew why it was so important. I was looking for something without fully knowing what it was I was actually looking for. At the time I thought I was looking for answers. Why did they keep taking me? Why did they take my dad, my grandfather? What did they want? Why did they suddenly stop? And now that I'm here, now that I've found you and Allie….I think I've found what it is that was so important for me to find."

"Allie needs a father," Lisa said softly.

"What changed your mind?"

"I was really close to my dad when I was a kid. He'd play baseball with me, help me with my homework. I really loved him. And after he died….Danny, my step dad, he was great. He taught me to play the drums, he encouraged me even when I was bad at it. I was lucky to have that twice. And now that you're here, I don't want to deprive Allie or you of that kind of relationship with each other."

"Thank you for giving me a chance," Charlie knew it took a very large leap of faith for her to do so.

Lisa shrugged. "She's your daughter too."

A/N: I used a line from one of Allie's narration. Something she said her father liked 

       to say. I don't know if it really fit in but I wanted to use it anyway. J  


	4. Remembering

I don't really like this chapter so if it sucks, I'm saying sorry in advance.

**********

Chapter 4: Remembering

Lisa watched from the kitchen table as Charlie and Allie talked animatedly about the book they were reading together. It had been two weeks since Charlie had first come into their lives, and he just seemed to fit in like a missing piece of the puzzle. He'd found an apartment not too far away and had just recently gotten a job as a fourth grade teacher at Allie's school. He would take Allie home from school everyday and help her with her homework when she needed it or they would read a book together. Lisa would bring her to school every morning, and then she'd go straight to band practice. And in the afternoons she'd attend the support group meetings. It was a routine they had gotten used to. Charlie only came to the group every once in a while now when his schedule allowed it.

Although she would never admit it to anyone but herself, Lisa actually enjoyed having a man around the house. Someone to share the responsibilities of parenthood with. But, at times when Lisa was being completely honest with herself, she could admit that Allie wasn't the only reason she liked having Charlie around. Over the past two weeks she had gotten the chance to get to know him better and the more time she spent with him, the more she liked him. Lately, the memories from their "encounter" on the spaceship have been finding its way into Lisa's mind more and more often. Especially at night, long after Allie had fallen asleep, Lisa would lie in bed, stare out the window and up at the stars and the memories which were once almost nonexistent were suddenly clear as day. She could remember the way it felt to be wrapped up in his arms, the arms of a complete stranger yet somehow she felt like she had known him for a lifetime. Lisa had just begun to let herself fantasize about how it would feel to be able to kiss Charlie in the here and now…..

"Mom…." Allie waved a hand in front of Lisa's face. "Mom!"

"Huh…." Lisa snapped out of her daydream. "What?"

Lisa looked up and blushed when she saw Charlie staring back at her from halfway across the room.

"Are you okay?" He asked in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lisa felt her cheeks burning and quickly averted her eyes. Allie was standing in front of her with an amused expression on her face. "Are you guys done?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna go," Charlie answered as he gathered his stuff.

"Aren't you going to stay for dinner?"

"I'd like to but I still have a huge pile of papers to grade."

"Oh, okay," Lisa got up and walked Charlie to the door. "We'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night," Charlie whispered to Lisa as he stood at the door.

"Good night," Lisa whispered back. Standing here looking into Charlie's eyes, she found herself desperately wishing he would kiss her. And for a moment, just for a moment, she thought that she could feel that he wanted to. 

Allie stood watching this from the kitchen table and suddenly she felt as if she were intruding. The electricity they were exuding was so palpable that Allie could feel it from all the way across the room.

Allie cleared her throat and grinned broadly when her parents jumped apart. 

"Night Allie," Charlie said.

"Night," Allie called back, as her dad left.

"What were you thinking about?" Allie asked as soon as Lisa had closed the door.

"Nothing," Lisa said innocently. 

"Ri-ght," Allie said doubtfully.

"Set the table, we're gonna eat."

Allie had a feeling she knew exactly what her mother was thinking about and she was not about to let the subject drop that easily. "You were thinking about Charlie weren't you?"

Lisa froze. Sometimes, she really hated how damn perceptive Allie was. It was one of her most endearing qualities yet at the same time it was also one of the most annoying.

"I was not," Lisa said lamely.

Allie grinned triumphantly. "You were!"

"Allie set the table," Lisa told her again as she took the lasagna out of the oven.

Allie finally did so and Lisa was relieved when she didn't say anything more about the subject.

They ate their dinner in silence for a few minutes until Allie spoke up again. "He thinks about you too, you know."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "I doubt he told you that."

"He didn't have to, I just know."

Lisa adopted a look of indifference on her face but inside she was dancing for joy. Maybe there was hope that Charlie didn't just see her as friend and the mother of his child, after all. Then Lisa admonished herself for allowing herself to think that way. Yes, she was attracted to Charlie and she could admit that her feelings for him were more than friendly. But there was no way that Lisa would allow herself to act upon her attraction and feelings. She and Charlie were just better off as friends.

"Mom, what was going on earlier?" Allie asked suddenly, startling Lisa out of her thoughts.

"What do you mean?" Lisa asked innocently.

"You know what I mean."

Lisa sighed. "We're not talking about this Allie."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to."

"Why don't you and Charlie just get together already? It's obvious you like each other."

"It's not that simple."

"It doesn't have to be so complicated either," Allie argued.

Lisa rubbed her forehead wearily. "Please, Allie, can we not talk about this right now?"

Allie sighed and went back to eating. She decided to give her mom a break and let the subject drop, for now.

**********

A lot of teachers hate checking papers. In fact, some teachers hate it so much that they get other people to do it for them, students or teacher's assistants. But Charlie had always found checking papers, especially test papers, to be relaxing somehow. The monotony of putting checks and exes on paper after paper allowed him to tune out the rest of the world and just focus on the task at hand. He had to put his concentration into it because if he made a mistake, it could cause a student's grade to suffer. Granted, the scribble of fourth-graders wasn't always easy to read, much less correct but it did offer a good focal point for his thoughts.

Today, though, checking papers provided Charlie with no escape from his thoughts. As much as he tried to get himself into the rhythm of checking, he always found his thoughts drifting somewhere else. And they were drifting to one person in particular, Lisa. He'd been thinking about her a lot lately, actually he'd been thinking about her non-stop. He'd been spending a lot of time with Allie and Lisa these past two weeks and had found it amazing how they had welcomed him into their family. Especially Lisa, Charlie knew it wasn't easy for her to share her daughter with someone she barely knew. But she made the effort to get to know him and gave him plenty of time with Allie so that they could get to know each other as well.

As a picture of Lisa's smiling face floated through his mind, Charlie finally put his pen down and gave up trying to check papers. He rubbed his eyes wearily and looked at the cell phone lying on his desk. There was a phone call he needed to make and he'd been putting it off for about a week now.

Charlie picked up the phone and dialed. 'Might as well get it over with', he thought.

"Hello," a female voice answered on the other line. 


	5. A Daughter's Advice

Chapter 5: A Daughter's Advice

"Hello," a female voice answered on the other line.

"Mom, hi," Charlie said.

"Charlie? I haven't heard from you in over two weeks, I was starting to get worried," Amelia said, relief in her voice.

"I know. I'm sorry; I've just been busy these last few weeks."

"Where are you?"

"Seattle."

"Seattle? Charlie, this is crazy. You've been chasing this UFO thing for months now. Now I understand your need for answers but, Charlie, don't you think it's about time you came home?"

"I am home mom. I have an apartment and a job teaching here in Seattle."

"R-really?" Amelia asked in shock.

"Yes."

"Well, that's good. That's good. How long are you going to stay?"

"Indefinitely."

Charlie could hear his mom hesitate before asking the next question. "What's in Seattle?"

'The woman I'm meant to be with and my daughter.'

"What do you mean?" Charlie asked innocently.

"What is it that's in Seattle that's making you stay?" Amelia clarified.

This was the part of the conversation that Charlie had dreaded. This was why he'd been putting off this phone call. He loved his mom and he hated having to hide things from her but he'd decided not to tell her about Allie quite yet. When he told her about Allie he wanted it to be in person so that his mom would have the chance to actually meet her granddaughter. Charlie had decided that after he'd had the chance to get settled in, he would invite his mom out to Seattle and that's when he'd give her the news that she had a 9 year old granddaughter.

In the meantime though, he had to hide the truth from his mom and Charlie hated having to do that. "I just got tired of being on the road and Seattle seemed as good a place as any to Seattle down."

"That's nice. Now what's the real reason?" Amelia knew her son well enough to know when he was lying to her.

"It's hard to explain right now mom," Charlie said honestly.

"You met someone, didn't you?"

This gave Charlie a moment's pause. He did technically meet someone, he met Lisa. Although it wasn't truly their first time meeting, in fact they already had a child together. He knew he didn't want to tell his mom about Allie yet, and right now he was debating on whether or not to tell her about Lisa.

Charlie was silent for too long though and this was all the confirmation Amelia needed. "Who is she?"

"Mom…."

"Just tell me something about her."

Charlie smiled as he thought of Lisa. "She's indescribable."

Amelia noticed the faraway, dreamy tone in her son's voice and knew that he was in love. She found it ridiculous sometimes how Charlie was 28 years old and had never had a serious relationship. Sure he'd dated and had brought home a few of his girlfriends, but she knew he was never serious about any of them. It always seemed to her as if Charlie was looking for something, and was continually disappointed when he couldn't find it in any of these girls. Amelia was just beginning to wonder if her son would be a bachelor forever.

"You should come out here sometime," Charlie said.

"Maybe I will sometime. Take care of yourself, Charlie. I love you."

"I love you too, mom."

Charlie put down the phone; he really wished he could tell his mom more about Lisa but now just wasn't the time. He smiled, thinking that maybe in a few months time he could introduce the three most important people in his life to one another.

He looked at his watch and sighed, class had ended barely an hour ago and Allie's soccer practice wasn't going to be over for another two hours. Two more hours to kill. Charlie tried to go back to checking papers but dropped his pen in frustration when memories from his and Lisa's "encounter" made its way into his mind. Ever since the day he went through hypno-regression, this memory had become increasingly clear to him. It was easy to distract himself from it during the day, when he was teaching or spending time with Allie. But the memories were clearest at night when he was lying in bed, staring out the window at the stars. He would remember the way it felt to hold Lisa in his arms, kissing her soft lips…..

A knock at the door startled Charlie out of his reverie. Allie opened the door and walked into the empty classroom.

"Hey," Charlie said in surprise. "How come you're not at soccer practice?"

"It's raining," Allie pointed out the window.

Charlie looked out the window and saw that it was, in fact, raining.

Allie pulled up a chair and sat across from her father. "What were you thinking about?"

"What do you mean?"

"You had to be in pretty deep thought not to notice how hard it's raining outside."

"It's nothing," Charlie said, hoping Allie would drop it.

Allie looked at him carefully. She knew exactly what her dad was thinking about, it was just a matter of getting him to admit it. 

"You should just tell her you know, that you like her."

"Who?"

"Mom."

It never seized to amaze Charlie how perceptive Allie could be for a 9 year old.

"It's not that simple."

Allie rolled her eyes. "That's what mom said. But I think it is that simple, it's just a matter of confronting whatever it is that scares you. I just don't want you and mom to throw away a good thing just because you're scared."   


	6. The Conspiracy

Chapter 6: The Conspiracy

"I'm so glad you're here Allie," Nina said excitedly as she ushered Allie into her apartment. "We've barely seen each other these past two weeks."

"I've been with my dad a lot," said Allie as she took a seat on the couch. "I'm sorry."

"Oh honey, don't be sorry. You need to spend a lot of quality time with your dad," Nina sat down beside Allie and put her arm around her. "I totally understand."

"I need your help on something."

"What is it?" Nina asked in concern.

"Mom really likes Charlie and Charlie really likes her but they won't do anything about it."

"I know what you mean. The looks that pass between those two."

"Has my mom ever been in love before?" Allie asked curiously.

Nina thought about this for a long moment. "Before you were born, your mom was just trying to figure out her life, make sense of things. She had to live on her own at a really young age because people were looking for her, so I don't think it really crossed her mind to date at that point. After she got pregnant with you, she'd talk about this guy who was on the ship with her. This guy, she knew, was your father. When she'd talk about him, she'd get this intense look of concentration like she was really trying to remember him.

"I think even then she was in love with him. And subconsciously she's been waiting for him to come ever since."

"And now he's here and she won't do anything about it!" Allie cried in frustration.

"Oh honey, these things take time. It doesn't happen overnight."

"None of this would've happened if it wasn't meant to," Allie sighed. "I just want us to be a family."

Nina looked at her goddaughter, there wasn't anything she wanted more in the world than for Lisa and Allie to be happy. And she really felt that Charlie could be the one to bring that happiness into their lives.

Nina smiled and got a conspiratorial glint in her eye. "I have a plan." 


End file.
